CIVIL AVIATION AT HOME.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17060, 3 February 1921, Page 9

CIVIL AVIATION AT HOME.

I NEED FOR NIGHT PLYING. (FHOM OCB OWN COEBESrONDENT.) LONDON, December 16. The need for commercial nijjht flying is now considered urgent on the routes between London and the Continent. Tho comparatively slow-moving goods trafiice which can thus be dealt with will provide tho financial standby for the swift but costly daylight services that arc required for passengers and mails. Experts have recently been detailed to seek interviews with managing directors, general managers, and heads of dispatching departments, and it seems that tho London-i'aris aerial goods service needs a simple system of collecting cargo in one terminal city during the last hour of the business day and delivering it in the other during the opening hour of tho nest morning's business. This entails a rapid, efficient, collecting .system with light vans; tho conveyance of the goods to tho air-port and their passage through Customs and their transport by air during therboius of darkness over the 223 miles which separate the air-ports of London and Paris. Arriving at Paris in the early hours of the morning, the goods would then be taken by motor into the city and delivered just as soon as business needs required. Once commercial, air transport can proceed safely and regularly lly night there is tho additional advantage for [the operating company that, havir;- a I number "of hours .of darkness during I which the carriage of goods between J London and Paris can be effected, it i will become possible to uso. aeroplanes | Avian more slowly than those employed at present on tho express day services. I This will mean that for any given exi pendituro of horse-power it will 'uc possible to transport a larger load. Tho whole point is the land organisation for night flying. Big goods-carry-ing aeroplanes, flying with several 'tons of merchandise at an average speed of | about 70 miles an hour, will bo readily forthcoming. Skilled pilots are .also available. All that is required is a satisfactory svstem of lighting tim torininnl air-ports of London and Paris, so that ascents and descents, can bo made safelv in darkness, and a further f-ystem of illuminating the flying route between these two ports. In tho former direction, at tho London air-port the Air Ministry has some very interesting experiments in hand. The third report on the progress of civil aviation issued in the form or a White Paper deals with Imperial Air Routes. It is stated that on the Eng' land-Egypt route a site has been secured at Malta for a new aerodrome, and steps have b«en taken to ensure the wireless communications along the air route between England, Malta, Egvpt. Mesopotamia, and India, i'he pier.*: rat ion of the Egypt-India route has been delayed owing to the unsettled conditions prevailing in Mesopotamia and Persia. Arrangements arc being made whereby the maintenance or the aerodromes on the Cairo-Cape Town route will he borne by local governments j this will relieve the. British Government of financial responsibility in the future. In Australia feveral air routes have been surveyed, and various schemes for the organisation of new air services between the principal towns are under consideration. In Canada a Government civil aerodrome has been opened at Ottawa, and a seaplane station at Vancouver is neariiiji completion. All regular Government air stations willb;) available as commercial stations, and a preliminary survey of certain proposed air routes has boon carried out. In India tho Air Board luvs decided upon the provision of aerodromes on the Cal-cutta-Delhi-Bombay, Bombay-Karachi, and Calcutta-liangobn routes. A.i Air } Board has been formed in New Zealand. ! It is understood that the South African ! Government will decide upon their policy in regard-t;> civil aviation, particularly fis affecting air mails and the organisation of an air doienco lor:e, as "soon as i he Director of Air Services arrives in the Dominion. A company in Bermuda is operating an air service, and is projecting new schemes in the West Indian Islands. Experiments have been conducted by the Department of research into tho development of several new types of power plant, and, if these are successful, it will enable a fuel of a higher rw-sh point to bo used, thus making for safety and cheapness. Several new designs" of aircraft are- being produced with facilities for making adjustments to the engines during flight; and a satisfactory cngina starter for uso on the ground is now available. Other investigations have been carried out to minimise the effects of miht and fog by mechanical dispersal, to •secure the illumination of landing grounds, and to produce mechanical apparatus to caus-c machines to flatten out automatically just before touching the j ground, as woil as into the question or obtaining instruments fcr indteatinw accurately to the pilot his position in relation to tho aerodrome and his height above the ground. Anidlig other problems under consideration are those conlieKs'd with th~ all-metal machine, helicopter, amphibian, and various instrument* for night flying.